By KEVIN ROSSI
Philahoops Staff
A week ago, Drexel head coach Bruiser Flint couldn’t remember ever playing a three-overtime game in his 12-plus years at Drexel. Now, he can say he’s the proud owner of two.
After needing three overtimes to down Alabama 85-83 to take third place at the NIT Season Tip-Off on Friday, Flint’s Dragons needed three overtimes to settle the score tonight against Cleveland State. After holding a 10-point halftime lead tonight against the Vikings, Drexel lost the lead and the game spiraled into three overtimes where the Dragons eventually prevailed by a score of 85-82.
“I actually think the first triple overtime I’ve ever had was on Friday at Alabama at the Garden,” Flint said. “Last year we had a few overtime games but no triples. We were able to pull them out, but I’ve never been in that situation before.”
The Dragons play their next game in three days on Saturday at home against Tennessee State. Flint knows that his guys have no choice but to be ready to come out and play.
“They’re not going to stop the games because we went into triple overtime,” Flint said. “We have to be ready to play. It is what it is. I’m not one of those guys to just sit around. We did this to ourselves a little bit, and we have to be ready to play the next game.”
Drexel point guard Frantz Massenat played in all 55 minutes of the game, but he said he was ready to go no matter what.
“If we had to play another overtime, I’d be ready to go,” Massenat said confidently with a laugh. “I did get tired at some points, but at the end of the game I was fine.”
We’ll have to check back and see how he feels tomorrow.
-Life without Damion Lee: Flint has never been one to make excuses, and the recent injury to Damion Lee is no different. On Monday it was announced that the junior guard would miss the remainder of the 2013-14 season with a torn ACL in his right knee. It’s an injury that he suffered in the second half of Drexel’s NIT Season Tip-Off game against Arizona.
“When you’re down a man, you’re down a man,” Flint reiterated after the Dragons’ second game without Lee. “That’s the way it is.”
Chris Fouch shot 7 for 16 to score 17 points in a game against Cleveland State where he found himself double teamed most of the night. (Philahoops/Kevin Rossi)
The Dragons, now Lee-less, venture through another season without the presence of one of their top scorers. Last season, the team lost sharpshooter Chris Fouch to a broken ankle three games in and went 13-18 on the year. Flint is hoping for better year than last.
“Well, I want to tell you guys that Damion is not coming back, so you have got to stop asking me questions about him,” Flint said, a bit irritated by a question about losing Lee. “We’re going to play the whole year without him, so we if we don’t come with that kind of resolve then we are not going to be able to win. He’s not coming back. We’ve won two games without him, and hopefully we’ll going to win a lot of games without him because he is not playing anymore this year.”
The Dragons are looking forward to getting Seton Hall transfer guard Freddie Wilson eligible at the halfway point of the season. Wilson transferred to Drexel last December, and he will provide a much-needed body at guard. Flint is confident that Wilson will see a good chunk of minutes when he’s eligible, likely stealing time from freshman Major Canady.
“We have a guy who is going to play once the break starts,” Flint said. “Hopefully Freddie can come in and help us in the backcourt.”
Flint and his coaching staff can only hope that Wilson provides quality minutes. As mentioned, Massenat played the whole game and had the duty of covering Cleveland States top scorer, Bryn Forbes, for most of the second half.
They will need to find an answer because as Flint stated simply, “Dame ain’t coming back.”
-A strong double-double: Dartaye Ruffin has had a quite season for the Dragons, if you’re only checking the box score. The senior forward was averaging 3.8 points and 7.7 rebounds per game coming into the game against Cleveland State.
He came out and showed what he can do when teams lose track of him, notching his first double-double of the season tying a career-high 15 points on 6 of 8 shooting and 14 rebounds.
“We just had a good scouting report on them,” Ruffin said humbly after the game. ” I was just in the right position.”
He was certainly right about the scouting report too. On multiple occasions, a Drexel guard would slash from the elbow to the foul line, and the Cleveland State big man would slide up from the block to double team the guard. This tactic on defense would leave Ruffin (and the other big men at times) wide open on the lower block for a layup.
To go along with the double-double, Ruffin also had two key blocks, including one with under a minute to go in the first overtime on what would have been the game-tying reverse lay-up for Cleveland State.
As the statistical breakdowns have should all season, Ruffin has been an unsung hero for Flint’s squad. The team is allowing an average of 1.62 points per minute, and Ruffin is leading the team allowing only 1.51 points per minute when he’s on the floor (coming into tonight’s game). His ability to remain out of foul trouble and on the floor for 54 minutes was a key to Drexel’s victory over Cleveland State.
Teams will game-plan heavily against Drexel’s guards all season long, so expect Ruffin and the other big men to continue to sneak in double-doubles here and there.
-Kevin Rossi covers Drexel for Philahoops. He can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @kevin_rossi. Drop a comment below.
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